Chapter 7312: Vestigial Body

Integrating TDAM into the Riot Mark III ended up a lot less stressful than expected.

Due to the Riot's Chaos Armor and its nature as a D-mech, the living machine had turned into an inherently unstable product.

As the first genuine adversarial mech designed by Ves, the Riot not only posed a threat against its own pilot, but also the people who serviced the mech frame.

Gloriana prepared detailed and extensive plans to modify the Riot Mark III's mech frame while it was still in a volatile state.

However, it turned out that her preparations turned out to be redundant.

Though Saint Rosa Orfan had only recently broken through, her willpower had already reached a height where she was able to suppress much of the Riot Mark III's inherent instability.

What Chaos Armor? What Prophet's Bane? Neither source of instability could overcome the resolve suppression of a genuine ace pilot!

This massively reduced the difficulty of upgrading the Riot Mark III. The mech designers should be able to complete the upgrade swift enough to give Saint Rosa Orfan enough hours to familiarize herself with the power of Terran Destroyer Amplification Material.

This was crucial for her upcoming participation in the imminent decisive battle.

After all, it was not a good idea for her to fight against the powerful voribugs without having stretched her new power at least once.

In fact, it was already rather hasty to deploy her on the battlefield so soon after recovering from her traumatic breakthrough event. Her case was especially bad due to partially fusing with her own machine.

By all rights, the Larkinsons should give her a few weeks or months of rest so that she could slowly figure out her new condition and get used to fighting with her adversarial mech.

However, there was no way an ace pilot as restless as Saint Orfan would remain calm under the circumstances.

Since she felt good enough to fight against an army of voribugs, then she should be allowed to participate in a hearty battle!

While Ves wanted to help with the upgrade process, Gloriana quickly made a decision after she found out that Saint Orfan was able to utilize her Saint Kingdom to suppress activity of her machine.

"Your assistance is not needed here." She flatly told him. "So long as the Riot Mark III remains stable, I alone can complete this task myself. Jovy here can help me complete the steps faster. I always found it regrettable that he hadn't been able to participate in the last upgrade run. Now that he has returned, he can make up for that by assisting me with my work."

Ves frowned. "I get the feeling you are not that eager to receive my help."

"That is your fault. Out of all of the mech designers that I know, you are by far the greatest and most unpredictable improviser that I have had the 'pleasure' to work with. Although many of your ideas and innovations have produced amazing successes, I am not looking forward to encountering any unexpected variables today. The conversion of the Riot Mark III into a proper ace mech needs to proceed as flawlessly as possible. I will not tolerate any risks. Not today."

"So am I supposed to move to the side and twiddle with my thumbs?"

"No. You can still do something useful for Saint Orfan. Haven't you developed those new exploding spears? Why not spend your time on fabricating a handful of them? I think that Saint Orfan will not refuse to wield them in battle. They can serve as a surprisingly strong weapon against the Goliath Hive."

Ves widened his eyes. "You're right! This is a much better use of my time! My exploding spears are already powerful when they are wielded by human phase lords like myself, but we don't have the ability to enhance them with true resonance. Ace pilots are different. The power of an exploding spear will be much greater in the hands of the Riot Mark III! Perhaps they may become strong enough to put a large dent in the Incubator!"

This was not a fantasy, but a very realistic possibility!

The only regret was that there was not enough time for Saint Orfan to familiarize herself with the Sacrificial Spear Throwing Method. The efficacy of the exploding spears was partially dependent on technique. Without mastering it to a sufficient degree, it would be hard to trigger the weapons to explode.

Still, Ves did not hesitate for long. He first imparted the Sacrificial Spear Throwing Method to the ace pilot. Whether she could skillfully make use of the technique during the decisive battle remained unclear. It was not particularly complicated, but it demanded a certain level of intelligence and rationality.

So long as Rosa Orfan still retained a human mind, then she should be able to get started with the method in time.

If her partial fusion with the Riot had caused her to become more irrational, then her learning ability would definitely be affected. If this was the case, then expecting Saint Orfan to burst out with greater power would remain a pure fantasy!

Several hours went by as the mech designers went to work.

Ves did not experience any particular challenges in his work. He already possessed multiple existing designs of exploding spears, and he could easily adapt them according to the availability of local resources.

Gloriana and Jovy worked together quite well over at her workshop. The Riot Mark III hardly held any secrets to her. While she did not understand the principles of Demoncasting and so on, the mech frame hadn't been distorted quite as much as expected.

Saint Orfan's resolve played a pivotal role in this. She had become the master and the ultimate controller of the mech frame.

That said, no one turned complacent after witnessing this amazing degree of control and power projection.

Ace pilots would not be able to maintain the full expression of their Saint Kingdoms for long.

This meant that it was best for the Riot Mark III to stay in reserve for a while longer.

"Based on past patterns of voribug invasion, any assault against the defensive network of Philaster Crestia III would encounter a lot of setbacks!" Ves grinned. "Even if the Terrans or the mechers are able to hold the line for a day, there is no telling what the Incubator would do if no one is around to stop it from advancing."

This was pure speculation in his heart, but it was enough for Ves to fixate on this remote possibility.

So long as the enemy Goliaths and VOBM did not approach the defensive installations too soon, Saint Orfans should have enough time to perfect her practice and take stock of her current capabilities.

This motivated Ves into creating more exploding spears. Perhaps he should fabricate a couple for his own use.

He quickly shook his head in rejection. That sounded a bit unnecessary at this time. He should obediently follow instructions and contribute to the defense of the star system in any way possible.

After Ves fabricated a handful of exploding spears suitable for use by the Riot Mark III, he paused his endeavors and checked in on Gloriana and Jovy.

"How is it going so far?" He asked.

"Almost ready." His wife responded as she carefully controlled the bots and robotic arms from a safe distance. "I have been taking the opportunity to study the mutated internal structure as I worked. It is truly interesting to observe how the mutations have subtly shifted the mech frame away from the original design. What is more interesting is that the mech frame has become more... malleable for a lack of a better expression."

"Oh? What do you mean by that, Gloriana?"

She took a few seconds to compose her words. "What I have discovered is that the Riot Mark III is no longer a pure physical construct anymore. Rather, ever since you 'transformed' it into an adversarial mech, its physical form has become a function of its spiritual form. This is not normal. I do not fully understand why this is happening, but I can still ascertain that this phenomena exists. If we can figure out the principles behind them, then we may be able to produce similar results in the future without introducing excessive risks."

Demoncasting was an inherently dangerous and risky activity. Gloriana hated the lack of control over the outcome. She also detested the use of demons in principle.

If she had a choice, then she would never involve Demoncasting in any of her precious high-end projects.

Alas, since Ves remained fixated on their promise, she was destined to encounter them in the future.

All Gloriana could do was to accept this new reality and seek to understand Demoncasting from her own perspective.

"What you have just said is indeed a mystery." Ves responded. "However, I think it will be difficult to construct a neutral or positive version of rapid physical mutation. It is not that easy for a mech to cross the boundary that separates its physical body from its intangible form. Demons are special because they are highly corruptive and very resilient. Imbuing them into objects produces immediate results. That is not the case for other methods and materials."

He was not that optimistic about this research.

It was much better for pilots and living mechs to strive for breakthroughs.

As for D-mechs and D-arms, their power came from a common but problematic source. This made them a lot more potent, but also a lot more difficult to wield.

He knew why this was the case. He wanted to research mitigation. He also wanted to learn more about Rosa Orfan's condition.

Now that she had stayed awake for a couple of hours, Saint Orfan and the experts dispatched by the RA made a number of important conclusions.

"What do you mean her body has turned vestigial?"

"Her original human body has lost most of the qualifications for life." Jovy seriously responded. Half of her body is fused with the cockpit chair. Her spine does not really exist any longer and so do several other organs."

"If that is the case, then Rosa..."

Jovy shrugged his shoulders. "According to our analysis, we can interpret this as a sign that Saint Orfan has successfully transferred her consciousness to the Riot Mark III. Even if we cut away her organic body from the piloting chair, the ace pilot will still remain in the Riot Mark III. She may decide to enter into inclusion if this was the

case."

What he revealed sounded shocking enough. Numerous mech designers familiar with the ace pilot's condition had never given up on helping Saint Orfan restore her original human body.

It was a pity that their strength was enough.

Ves closed his eyes for a moment. "Should we keep the organic body, or send it off? What does Rosa Orfan think?"

"She does not understand these matters. They are too profound for a simple champion such as herself. Her answer remains unclear. For now, we recommend that you abide by the status quo and avoid any mischief."

"Fine."

"Have you completed the exploding spears?"

"I did." Ves nodded. "Don't worry. They should be incredibly potent, especially in the hands of a genuine ace mech. The only constraints are resources and time. It is very expensive to fabricate a single of them. They should only be used against the strongest of enemies in order to justify the colossal expenditures. Even if I can make more of them, I do not dare to do so because they are truly resource hungry."

Even if Ves and the Larkinson Clan could easily obtain resources, red humanity as a whole was still suffering from

a lack of supply.

It would be too extravagant for Ves to expend valuable resources to produce single-use exploding spears!

Gloriana clearly agreed with his sentiment. "These exploding spears are similar to missiles in this regard. Few can bear the cost of using them in every battle." More chapters in Telegram: t.me/+z7ieNjQSLFMzMmY6

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